Tag : Canada(105)

Environmental groups in Canada have lashed out at the government, saying it has failed to protect bees. Ottawa has proposed limiting the use of bee-killing insecticides, but environmentalists want them completely banned.

On Tuesday, Health Canada’s pest control body issued a report on a group of pesticides, called neonicotinoids, giving the green light to their further use before making final decisions in March 2018.

The move riled conservation activists, who are calling on the government to follow the lead taken by other countries and introduce an all-out ban on the chemicals. Also known as neonics, they are applied in a wide range of areas, including agriculture, forestry and flea treatment for pets.

Worldwide changes in extreme precipitation and temperature are consistent with what we anticipate from global warming. Science is linking climate change with increased risk of forest fires, floods, heavy rains, and the most powerful hurricanes. Canadians experienced many of these extremes in 2017.

As the Top 10 Weather Stories of 2017 confirm, our communities must become more resilient – not only for what lies ahead, but for the changing climate that is already on our doorstep.

Canadians had plenty to “weather” in 2017. Property damage from weather extremes cost Canadian insurers and governments millions of dollars. Between the few floods, the many wildfires and record dry temperatures, 2017 was a year of too much — too dry, too hot, too fiery, too wet, too cool, but not too cold.

It was the eighth warmest period in 70 years of reporting weather, with temperatures averaging 1.4°C above normal. This year also marked the 21st consecutive year warmer than normal, matching the trend for the rest of the world.

From a list of 100 significant weather events that occurred across Canada in 2017, we picked the top 10 weather stories that were the most significant. These stories were selected based on the degree of impact on Canadians, the size of area affected, the economic and environmental effects and how long it remained a top news story in Canadian media.

One year ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got eight provinces and all three territories to agree to put a price on pollution as part of a national climate change plan.

The Pan Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change is a mouthful to say but it was considered by many to be the first time Canada had, at least on paper, an actual strategy to meet its international commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Twelve months later, environmental advocates say 2018 is going to have to be a banner year for environmental legislation, regulation and strategies or the climate plan is going to end up on the scrap heap of climate promises past.

They’re buildings so energy efficient they don’t need a furnace, an air conditioner or any other kind of active climate control to keep their residents comfortable through Canada’s sticky summers and icy winters.

“Passive houses” are buildings that rely on insulation, ventilation and heat from their occupants or sun falling on them to maintain the perfect temperature.

In Canada, up until now, they’ve mostly been single-family dwellings — green dream homes for those who can afford them. But now, builders using international passive-house design principles and standards are scaling up to big apartment buildings.

A new report says that even if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, all of Canada is projected to get warmer by the end of the century, while the number of 30 C plus days per year are predicted to “explode” under the current global warming trajectory.

The report by climatologists at the University of Winnipeg-based Prairie Climate Centre looks at how temperature and precipitation are likely to change under two hypothetical warming scenarios: a “low-carbon” one that assumes emissions will slow, and a high-carbon scenario that assumes the opposite — “that humanity will continue to emit more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere well into the future.”

What the Transition movement does incredibly well is small-scale experiments which are practical, which resonate with local people, which look as if they’re doable, and that can engage people at a practical and meaningful level. It connects up the big issues and the local issues and shows you that change can happen at a local level.

Our own survival depends on the stability of the intricate and complex interactions of various ecosystems within the biosphere. Keep pulling threads out of that tapestry and sooner or later it all unravels.